USCCB > Bible PSALMS, CHAPTER 65 1 For the leader. A psalm of David. A song. I 2 To you we owe our hymn of praise, O God on Zion; To you our vows* must be fulfilled, 3 *you who hear our prayers. To you all flesh must comea 4 with its burden of wicked deeds. We are overcome by our sins; only you can pardon them.b 5 Blessed the one whom you will choose and bring to dwell in your courts. May we be filled with the good things of your house, your holy temple! II 6 6 You answer us with awesome deeds* of justice, O God our savior, The hope of all the ends of the earth and of those far off across the sea.c 7 You are robed in power, you set up the mountains by your might. 8 You still the roaring of the seas,d the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples.e 9 Distant peoples stand in awe of your marvels; the places of morning and evening you make resound with joy. 10 *You visit the earth and water it, make it abundantly fertile.f God’s stream* is filled with water; you supply their grain. Thus do you prepare it: 11 you drench its plowed furrows, and level its ridges. With showers you keep it soft, blessing its young sprouts. 12 You adorn the year with your bounty; your paths* drip with fruitful rain. 13 The meadows of the wilderness also drip; the hills are robed with joy. 14 The pastures are clothed with flocks, the valleys blanketed with grain; they cheer and sing for joy.g * [Psalm 65] The community, aware of its unworthiness (Ps 65:3–4), gives thanks for divine bounty (Ps 65:5), a bounty resulting from God’s creation victory (Ps 65:6–9). At God’s touch the earth comes alive with vegetation and flocks (Ps 65:10–13). * [65:2] Vows: the Israelites were accustomed to promising sacrifices in the Temple if their prayers were heard. * [65:3] To you all flesh must come: all must have recourse to God’s mercy. * [65:6] Awesome deeds: the acts of creating—installing mountains, taming seas, restraining nations (Ps 65:7–8)—that are visible worldwide (Ps 65:6, 9). * [65:10–14] Apparently a description of the agricultural year, beginning with the first fall rains that soften the hard sun-baked soil (Ps 65:9–10). * [65:10] God’s stream: the fertile waters of the earth derive from God’s fertile waters in the heavenly world. * [65:12] Paths: probably the tracks of God’s storm chariot dropping rain upon earth. a. [65:3] Is 66:23. b. [65:4] Ps 32:1–2; 78:38; Is 1:18. c. [65:6] Is 66:19. d. [65:8] Ps 89:10; 107:29; Jb 38:11; Mt 8:26. e. [65:8] Is 17:12. f. [65:10] Lv 26:4; Is 30:23, 25; Jl 2:22–23. g. [65:14] Is 44:23. « | » ©2016 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops USCCB > Bible PSALMS, CHAPTER 66 1 For the leader. A song; a psalm. I 2 Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; sing of his glorious name; give him glorious praise.a 3 Say to God: “How awesome your deeds! Before your great strength your enemies cringe. 4 All the earth falls in worship before you;b they sing of you, sing of your name!” Selah II 5 *Come and see the works of God, awesome in deeds before the children of Adam. 6 He changed the sea to dry land; through the river they passed on foot.c There we rejoiced in him, 7 who rules by his might forever, His eyes are fixed upon the nations. Let no rebel rise to challenge! Selah 8 Bless our God, you peoples; loudly sound his praise, 9 Who has kept us alive and not allowed our feet to slip.d 10 You tested us, O God, tried us as silver tried by fire.e 11 You led us into a snare; you bound us at the waist as captives. 12 *You let captors set foot on our neck; we went through fire and water; then you led us out to freedom.f III 13 I will bring burnt offerings* to your house; to you I will fulfill my vows, 14 Which my lips pronounced and my mouth spoke in my distress. 15 Burnt offerings of fatlings I will offer you and sacrificial smoke of rams; I will sacrifice oxen and goats. Selah 16 Come and hear, all you who fear God, while I recount what has been done for me. 17 I called to him with my mouth; praise was upon my tongue. 18 Had I cherished evil in my heart, the Lord would not have heard. 19 But God did hear and listened to my voice in prayer. 20 Blessed be God, who did not reject my prayer and refuse his mercy. * [Psalm 66] In the first part (Ps 66:1–12), the community praises God for powerful acts for Israel, both in the past (the exodus from Egypt and the entry into the land [Ps 66:6]) and in the present (deliverance from a recent but unspecified calamity [Ps 66:8–12]). In the second part (Ps 66:13–20), an individual from the rescued community fulfills a vow to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. As often in thanksgivings, the rescued person steps forward to teach the community what God has done (Ps 66:16–20). * [66:5–6] cf. the events described in Ex 14:1–15, 21; Jos 3:11–4:24 and Ps 114. * [66:12] You let captors set foot on our neck: lit., “you let men mount our heads.” Conquerors placed their feet on the neck of their enemies as a sign of complete defeat, cf. Jos 10:24. A ceremonial footstool of the Egyptian king Tutankhamen portrays bound and prostrate bodies of enemies ready for the king’s feet on their heads, and one of Tutankhamen’s ceremonial chariots depicts the king as a sphinx standing with paw atop the neck of an enemy. * [66:13] Burnt offerings: cf. Lv 1:3–13; 6:1–4; 22:17–20. a. [66:2] Ps 65:14; Is 44:23. b. [66:3–4] Ps 18:45; Mi 7:17. c. [66:6] Ps 74:15; 114:3; Ex 14:21f; Jos 3:14ff; Is 44:27; 50:2. d. [66:9] Ps 91:12; 121:3; 1 Sm 2:9; Prv 3:23. e. [66:10] Is 48:10. f. [66:12] Is 43:2. « | » ©2016 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops USCCB > Bible PSALMS, CHAPTER 67 1 For the leader; with stringed instruments. A psalm; a song. I 2 May God be gracious to us* and bless us; may his face shine upon us.a Selah 3 So shall your way be known upon the earth, your victory among all the nations.b 4 May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you! II 5 May the nations be glad and rejoice; for you judge the peoples with fairness, you guide the nations upon the earth.c Selah 6 May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you! III 7 The earth has yielded its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.d 8 May God bless us still; that the ends of the earth may revere him. * [Psalm 67] A petition for a bountiful harvest (Ps 67:7), made in the awareness that Israel’s prosperity will persuade the nations to worship its God. * [67:2] May God be gracious to us: the people’s petition echoes the blessing pronounced upon them by the priests, cf. Nm 6:22–27. a. [67:2] Ps 4:7; 31:17; 44:4; 80:4; Dn 9:17. b. [67:3] Jer 33:9. c. [67:5] Ps 98:9. d. [67:7] Ps 85:13; Lv 26:4; Ez 34:27; Hos 2:23–24. « | » ©2016 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops USCCB > Bible PSALMS, CHAPTER 95 I 1 Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD; cry out to the rock of our salvation.a 2 Let us come before him with a song of praise, joyfully sing out our psalms. 3 For the LORD is the great God, the great king over all gods,b 4 Whose hand holds the depths of the earth; who owns the tops of the mountains. 5 The sea and dry land belong to God, who made them, formed them by hand.c II 6 Enter, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us. 7 For he is our God, we are the people he shepherds, the sheep in his hands.d III Oh, that today you would hear his voice:e 8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the desert.* 9 There your ancestors tested me; they tried me though they had seen my works.f 10 Forty years I loathed that generation; I said: “This people’s heart goes astray; they do not know my ways.”g 11 Therefore I swore in my anger: “They shall never enter my rest.”* * [Psalm 95] Twice the Psalm calls the people to praise and worship God (Ps 95:1–2, 6), the king of all creatures (Ps 95:3–5) and shepherd of the flock (Ps 95:7a, 7b).